Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday urged some US officials to focus on what they could do for Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic instead of making vicious accusations and attacks on other countries based on wrong and twisted information. 

The comment came after reports said a US congressman is calling on the State Department to urge China to investigate the disappearance of three Chinese "citizen journalists" who they claimed were seeking to expose the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Republican Representative Jim Banks asked the US government to launch a probe into the fates of Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua, Reuters reported Wednesday. The report said they went missing after taking videos and posting them online, which included images of overwhelmed hospitals and corpses piled into a minibus.

Asked about how the foreign ministry commented on the case, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said "China has been open and transparent in dealing with the epidemic. I know that some people in the US may have been concerned about the early release of information on the epidemic outbreak in Wuhan, and they may have thought there were problems. But Chinese authorities have already conducted a serious investigation and released the relevant information." 

"I don't know what these congressmen elected by the American people are doing for Americans. They're always looking at what's going on in other countries. Based on totally wrong, distorted, and fabricated information, they have made up some ulterior, vicious accusations and attacks against China," said Hua. 

"The Chinese people trust the Chinese government. Why should some US congressmen question China based on groundless facts?" Hua asked, urging US officials to spend more time to push their administration to do what they can for their people, save the lives of Americans and keep them safe. 

The more noise they made, the more damage will be done to the US' image in the world, especially in the eyes of the Chinese people, Hua noted. 

Global Times